Memories of a Past Life
by Mriya
Summary: What exactly happened to Masaki after she died protecting Ichigo? summary sucks. R&R.
1. Life after Death

Summary: After Masaki died protecting Ichigo, she was sent to the Soul Society. But what happens when she gets there?

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or any of the characters...no matter how much I want to.

_Six Years Previous_

"Ichigo!" Masaki screamed as she watched as here son ran down to the overflowing river to save someone who did not exist.

She lunged at him before he could meet his deadly fate: Grand Fisher. Issin had told here about a hollow who lured his victims by creating a fishing hook that looked like someone dear to them. They would see the hook and be devoured by an unknown being. No shinigami had been able to kill him, let alone hurt him.

She smiled as she caught him, but that smile quickly disappeared as she felt a sharp pain in her back. In the corner of her eye, she saw grand fisher peering over her. He pulled his hook out of her so that it was in its proper place, hanging from his forehead.

After a moment, she realized that she was no longer in her body, but a soul with a chain hanging from her chest. She stood there silently as she watched Ichigo kneeling by her body, crying for her to get up. Tears streaked her cheeks as she watched her nine year old son begging her hopelessly to come back to life. It was the first time in years that she had seen him look at her without smiling. She could hardly bear to watch.

Finally remembering her situation, she turned to find Grand Fisher approaching slowly.

"Finally! I wanted a simple snack and look what I get. A beautiful, delicious meal!" he said cheerfully. "I was gonna eat the little brat, but to tell you the truth, I prefer the beautiful women like yourself."

He continued chuckling about how well he was going to eat tonight, completely oblivious to everything else.

Suddenly, as he approached her, he was propelled back by a bright blue flash of energy. Masaki turned to look at Ichigo. He was still crying over her body, but now he was surrounded an electric blue glow. In his sorrow, his reiatsu was increasing, over powering Grand Fisher.

"Just you wait woman! I will get you _and_ that little brat of yours!" he yelled, as he fled away from Ichigo and Masaki.

"Mama! Mama! Get up! Please!" Ichigo cried hoarsely.

Masaki walked toward him and placed a soft hand at his back to get his attention. "Ichigo. Ichigo, I'm sorry, but it's too late," she whispered, but he was to upset to notice anything. He just sat there crying at her side. "Ichigo, please stop crying. Everything will be alright."

"Excuse me. Miss?" a voice said from a few feet behind her.

Masaki turned around to see a white haired shinigami standing with his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Ukitake! What are you doing here?" she asked, taking a small step toward him, staring in disbelief.

"Oh, no! Masaki, what happened?" he asked, a mask of grief shooting across his gentle features.

"Grand Fisher tried to kill Ichigo with that lure thing of his. I jumped in front of the attack and got hit instead." she said, glancing at Ichigo, who was still shaking her lifeless body. "But before he could devour me, Ichigo's reiatsu skyrocketed to an amazing level. It was at least ten times stronger than I've felt Issin's reach."

"Well, at least he's safe. Well, enough of this small talk. I've got to send you to the Soul Society now." Ukitake said pulling his sword out of its sheath.

"Understand. Will you tell Issin for me?" she asked.

"Of course. Take this. I'm not sure what part of the Soul Society you'll end up in. Whatever happens, go to the gate to the Seireitei. Show this to the guard, and he'll let you in. It's an unauthorized pass to go any where." Ukitake ordered, handing her a small piece of paper.

"Where am I supposed to go?"

Ukitake prepared his sword for the soul burial. "Once your inside, show this to any shinigami, and they will take you to the thirteenth division office. I will make sure that Kaien will be there to greet you if I'm not."

As he finished talking, he placed the back of the sword's hilt on her forehead.


	2. New school, New Life

Disclaimer: Don't own it; never will.

_Present Time_

Masaki lay on her bed thinking about that night that demolished most of her son's smiles. She was now attending the Shinigami Academy to become a shinigami herself. When the staff had measured her spiritual pressure, they said it was currently strong enough to belong to a lieutenant. She secretly took pride in that, thinking that if she had also been a shinigami before, she could have been part of her own husband's squad.

She had just finished unpacking all of her things in her dorm. She still hadn't met her roommate, so she was beginning to wonder if she was going to end up having the whole dorm to herself. While she was lost in her thoughts, the door slammed open, revealing the figure of a fairly tall woman.

"Damn! Those idiots need to learn to make these stupid hallways easier to get through so we don't get lost!" the woman complained to no one.

Masaki sat up on her bed staring curiously at the woman. She was a pretty woman with short black hair that was sticking out everywhere. Her eyes were a weird shade of green she had never seen before. Despite the rest of her appearance, the woman seemed to be older than Masaki herself.

The woman stopped and looked at Masaki in surprise. "Oh, you must be my roommate..." she said grinning a bit.

"Um, yeah..." Masaki said to the still standing stranger.

Her grin widened. "My name's Asami Shirokuni. Nice to meet ya." she said sticking her hand out to Masaki.

"Masaki Kurosaki. Nice to meet you too," Masaki said, shaking Asami's hand awkwardly.

Masaki helped her unpack her things. She definitely had more than Masaki did. They told each other about themselves as they worked. Asami had died when she was about forty years old. That was only two years ago. She had two little boys named Koichiro and Kai. They were about thirteen back then, so they would now be fifteen. They had lived in Osaka and were about to move to Karakura.

"What?! You lived in Karakura? That's so weird!" she exclaimed. "Hey, did you have any kids?"

Masaki stopped what she was doing. "Yes. I had a little boy, Ichigo, and two little girls, Yuzu and Karin."

Asami's grin turned into a look of sympathy. "How old were they?"

"Ichigo was nine, and Yuzu and Karin were five," she grinned weakly. "How did you die, Asami?"

"I was hit by a car on my way home from the store," she chuckled. "A pretty stupid way to die, don't you think?"

"Not really."

"How about you?" she asked, looking at Masaki curiously.

Masaki froze again. She felt tears come to her eyes as she remembered seeing Ichigo crying over her body. She stopped the tears before they could flow freely from her eyes. "A hollow by the name of Grand Fisher tried to kill my son. I jumped in front of the attack and died instead."

Asami stared at her in shock. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea."

She didn't ask why Masaki hadn't been devoured by the hollow. She didn't want to cause her more pain than she already had. They were just finishing unpacking when they heard a knock at the door. Asami stood up and answered the door only to find the headmaster standing on the other side.

"Good evening. I am Headmaster Hoshizuki Kawamura. Here are your schedules. Class starts at seven o'clock sharp. Lunch will be at noon. Your first teacher will explain the rules of the academy first thing tomorrow. I suggest you show up on time." he explained carefully as he turned and left.

Masaki and Asami opened their schedules and smiled.

"Hey, we've got all the same classes. That's pretty damn lucky!" Asami said cheerfully.

Masaki grinned slightly. "I have an idea. How about we go to sleep now so that we're not late for class tomorrow."

"Sounds good to me!"

Okay, that's the end of chapter two. Not exactly sure if I'm doing good or not, so it would be nice if people reviewed. Thanks!

Miya


	3. Test of Instinct

Disclaimer: Same as the other two chapters...unfortunately...

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The next morning Asami and Masaki woke up after just getting to sleep. Scowling, they got dressed in their new uniforms and headed out to get breakfast. They were allowed to leave the campus so they went to a nearby noodle stand in the local area for breakfast.

While they were silently eating their noodles, rough looking men, who just happened to be passing the area, stopped a few feet away from them. They were good looking, they'd admit that, but they had no wish to have to confront them.

"Hey Masaki, I think it's about time we left. I doubt those guys will take no for an answer," Masaki whispered in her ear, suspiciously glancing at the group of men with her peripheral vision.

"Sounds good to me. But I've got one question."

"What's that?"

"What do we do if they try to stop us?" Masaki asked in a bored voice.

Asami stared off into space while thinking for an answer to the obvious question that she should have thought of. "Umm...okay, this is too hard. How about we just kick their asses?"

"I guess thats the only choice we've got," Masaki smiled at her new friend's rebellious suggestion.

When they finished talking, Masaki and Asami got up, acting casually, so that they wouldn't give them any reason to think that they were on to them. They walked down the dirt path and turned into an alleyway. It was long, dark, and would provide cover if they needed it. It didn't seem that the men from before was following them, so they just kept walking. Once they got to the center of the alleyway, They saw the figures of four men standing just ahead of them.

"Shit," Asami muttered to herself as she and Masaki stopped walking.

"Hey, are you two ladies lost? If you are, we can help you find your way if you like," one of the men said and he took a couple steps closer to them.

He was really tall. Probably about six and a half feet tall. He had cropped black hair in a punk look which made Masaki think _'Jeez, he and Asami would look great together.' _She quickly tossed that thought aside and checked her surroundings. Went she actually looked, she realized that this wasn't the perfect place for cover in a fight, but the ideal place for an ambush.

Masaki didn't want Asami doing anything reckless, so she answered them. "No, we're not lost. We were just taking a short cut back to school. That's all. Thanks though."

"Masaki..." Asami pleaded.

The mans face lit up with glee. "So that's your name. Masaki? That's a really pretty name." To Masaki's surprise, he didn't move at all. What was wrong with this guy?

Then she noticed something that she really shouldn't have overlooked: he had a sword tied to his belt. _'Crap! This isn't good. _Then Masaki realized that Issin had taught her how to handle these situations. _'Okay. I should know what to do. Issin told me this a million times. He learned it in the academy when...' _Wait! That was it. She had figured out exactly who these men were, and what they wanted.

"Actually, I believe we might have taken a wrong turn. It would be helpful if you could show us a better short cut," Masaki said suppressing the giant urge to smile. She saw his smile and immediately know that this was exactly what he wanted.

The man smiled. "Of course." He took a step forward and Masaki had the spell ready in her head.

"_Disintegrate, black dog of Rodaniini. Look upon your burning soul and sever your throat! Bakudou number nine: Geki!" _Masaki shouted the incantation and held her hands out toward the men.

"What the hell!" the man looked utterly surprised at Masaki's actions.

Asami and Masaki watched as the men were completely surrounded in a slightly transparent red box. Then Masaki was ready for her next spells, which would seal the deal of this little 'ambush'.

"Masaki, what the hell did you just do? What was that..." Asami trailed of as she was interrupted by another spell.

"_Oh ruler, mask of flesh and blood, all creations of the universe ,fluttering of the wings, ye who bears the name of man! Scorching heat and disorder, evolve the transposition of the southern sea barrier! Hadou number thirty one: Shakkahou!" _Masaki shouted and moved her hands in every possible direction to create the necessary hand signs.

The three men that hadn't said anything stared in awe as they watched the red ball of fire flying at them.

The other man, however, had regained his smile. He muttered an incoherent spell that canceled out the two other spells that Masaki had thrown at them.

Asami gawked in surprise. "What the hell!" she shouted as she watched Masaki's spells dissipate.

When the smoke cleared up, the man was closer than before and his grin had grown to show pure joy. "Ha ha! This is great!" he laughed loudly.

"And why is that, sir?" Masaki smiled.

"What? Why the hell did you just call him 'sir'? What's going on that I don't know about?" Asami cried in confusion of what had just happened.

The man began walking forward until he was standing in front of Masaki. "I take it you now know who I am. Am I correct?" he said and Masaki nodded. "Well, why don't you tell everyone."

Masaki nodded again. "You're not some average punk walking on the street waiting to attack innocent looking bystanders. You're actually a professor at the Shinigami Academy."

"Correct. I'm guessing that my actions and my zanpaktou gave it all away?"

"Yes."

"Uh...okay, Masaki, how did you know who this guy was?" Asami asked, breaking the small silence.

Masaki smiled sadly and looked down. "My husband told me what to do if this kind of thing ever happened to me. He is a former captain of the Gotei Thirteen."

Asami calmed herself when she saw Masaki's sad look. "Oh." She didn't ask any more questions.

"I am Kenji Shirosawa, the Advanced Kidou teacher at the school. I have very good news for you. Every year, the advanced freshman students get to go on a trip to a town in the living world three months into the school year."

"Really? Where are we going to go this year?" Masaki asked curiously.

"After some pursuading from Ukitaki-taicho, we've decided to go to someplace that you are very familiar with," He said with a suspicious smile.

"Which is?" Masaki asked growing irritated.

"Karakura."


	4. Back to school

Disclaimer: Ugh. Don't own it; never will...well, I can wish, right?

Okay. It took quite a while, but I'm finally continuing the story. I will admit that my last chapter wasn't the best, but I can live with it. I wrote it during the day, so that's probably why. I write better after midnight. Well, on with the story. Please review and tell me what you think of the story. Oh, and if it turns out a bit mellow and calm and then all hyper and actiony (running out of words here), you can blame it on the fact that I'm listening to Fahrenheit.

* * *

Masaki was sure that she hadn't misheard the professor, but she didn't want to show any signs of her excitement. So instead, she merely said, "I will really enjoy that. Thanks for telling me."

Kenji looked a bit troubled by her casual reaction. He decided not to push the subject any further, so he just let it go. There was something else that was bothering him. She had said that her husband is a former captain of the Gotei Thirteen, but he hadn't been seen in such a long time that people had thought him dead.

Kenji smiled at Masaki and Asami and said, "Well, I think it might be a good idea that we get back to school. We're already late enough, but it was worth it, seeing the skills of the students I'll be teaching."

They walked through the dirt roads until they eventually came to the school gates. Thankfully, people were still entering the school. They didn't go unnoticed though. The other teachers grew suspicious of them as they saw them enter with Kenji. Masaki and Asami didn't like how people were staring at them, but they learned to ignore it. They continued walking until they got to a crowd of students. Kenji pushed his way through the crowd and pulled Masaki and Asami along with him until they were in the front row.

Then, all of a sudden, all of the talking ceased. Masaki looked down the long row of students and saw some people she never expected to see again. In order they were Head Captain Yamamoto, Soi Fon, Retsu Unohana, Byakuya Kuchiki, Komamura, Shunsui Kyoraku, Toushirou Hitsugaya, Zaraki Kenpachi, Kurosutchi Mayuri, and of course, Jushiro Ukitake.

Masaki was happy to see them all, but there were quite a few missing. What happened to Gin, Aizen, and Tosen? Well, there had to be a good explanation for why they weren't there, so she didn't ponder on that little mystery.

As the Gotei Thirteen captains walked down the isle, a loud voice boomed, "Introducing the captains of the Gotei Thirteen who some of you may serve under who protect us all!"

The captains all stopped in the row and turned to face the students who were oddly, yet understandably, huddled around one side of the trail. Ukitake saw Masaki and smiled. She had no idea why he seemed to be so happy to see her, when he could visit anytime.

Then, Yamamoto spoke, "New students of Shinigami Academy. Classes are going to be much harder this year. With the Winter War approaching, we are going to need all the help we can get. Three of our captain positions were empty, but we finally found one person to fill the position of 3rd squad's captain. This is Shusuke Amagai.

A man that slightly resembled Kyoraku nodded his head as Yamamoto continued, "Shirosawa-sensei!"

Kenji snapped into proper posture while addressing the captain, "Yes, sir?"

"Did you give the test to a random student?" Yamamoto inquired.

"Yes, sir."

"And did you bring the student?"

"Yes, sir."

Yamamoto let out a little chuckle against his will. "Calm down. I'm not condemning you."

Kenji laughed uneasily in his embarrassment. "Right. Sorry 'bout that."

"Well?..."

Kenji put on a more serious face, pulled Masaki forward, and said, "She's right here."

Masaki gave the captains a shakey smile as they looked at her in surprise. Then, Yamamoto spoke.

"Well, I believe I speak for all of us when I say we didn't expect you to end up at Shinigami Academy."

"Um...Actually, I knew," Ukitake said nervously.

Yamamoto looked at Ukitake suspiciously and said, "Well, I'll question you about that later. Well, our reason for this little conference is done. Go to your classes."

A/N: Okay, that was really short, but I got into a bit of a writers block. Well, please review if you want. If you don't, well that's okay, but I would like to hear what you think. Oh, and the story will get more sarcasm later on. I suck at serious things. Well, Ja-ne!

-Miya Lee-


	5. Before the Bell Rings

Disclaimer: Do I really have to write this again? Really? Fine...Look at the other chapters.

Sorry, my sarcasm is a bit off today. I promise I'll get it back. Isn't it a miracle I'm continuing the story?

Masaki arrived to her first class before anyone else. Class didn't start for another ten minutes, so she had time to look around. It was a fairly large classroom, but unusually empty, despite the large number of seats. She continued walking around and ended up near the seats. She looked down and noticed that there were name cards set in front of each chair. Guessing that they were in alphabetical order, she continued around the maze of the thirteen long desks until she arrived at her name. It turned out that they were placed in a random order, so she had more trouble finding her seat than she had first thought.

Right as she sat down, the teacher walked in. he was a muscular man who looked like he was in his mid-thirties and seemed very serious for just the first day. Not surprisingly, he didn't notice that he already had one student in the classroom. Feeling bored, she went through everything that Isshin had taught her in her head until the teacher's voice snapped her out of her daze.

"What are you doing here so early?" her shouted at Masaki, suddenly in front of her. Flash Step was rarely used by teachers outside of practice, so this was pretty shocking.

Masaki didn't let the surprise show in any of her calm features as she said, "I wanted to make sure I got here on time."

His face didn't change from the seriously dangerous expression he seemed to always wear. "Is that so?" he spat. "Well, I've never heard of a first year student who was this serious about classes."

"Well I have. It means they actually want to learn something." She didn't seem to care that she was only ticking him off more.

"Do you know what class this is?" he asked, his face turning a faint purple with rage.

"Yes, sir. You teach the history of the Gotei 13. The first years only learn about the past and current taichous and fukutaichous," Masaki answered feeling proud that she remembered who this pompous man was and why he was here.

Now it was his turn to be surprised. "You were only supposed to know the room and building number! How do you know all this?"

Masaki bit her lip while she decided whether or not to tell this man about her husband. She decided on the partial truth that came to mind and said, "You'll find out when we visit the hall of past taichous and fukutaichous." Well, she didn't lie.

He smiled a very disturbing smile and said, "How 'bout you just tell me now!"

Masaki thought back to the memories of this man. Why didn't he remember her? He had been at her wedding for crying out loud!

"Isshin."

The single word struck the teacher she knew as Jinsei Magato with a headache full of memories. But before he could say anything, the room began to fill with the entire population of first year students. The first day had finally begun.

A/N: Sorry this was so short. My baby brother's crying and I've got to feed him.


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